


A Revelation Achieved

by Anonymous



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Bad Flirting, Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Crushes, M/M, Meteorstuck, Pranks and Practical Jokes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 04:32:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14825300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Dave had not expected that he'd ever object more to the fact that he was wearing clothes than the fact that Gamzee was naked.





	A Revelation Achieved

**Author's Note:**

> AU in that everyone randomly gets along better, and that there is a touch of Gamzee ♦ Karkat despite the setting being more or less the retcon timeline. Sometimes I just want to write blackrom semi-fluff without a bunch of obstacles.

* * *

  
  
The movie party was the kind of success where during the last two movies nobody had moved more than was required to get another mouthful of a snack, which was success where you woke up salt-mouthed and stiff and wished you hadn't won. What Gamzee liked, even as he could feel where stupid aches would crack up his neck later, was that he and Dave were both still awake. Wouldn't do to have temptation to sneak into that brother's dreams, now would it? And as Gamzee's attention wandered away from the screen to give his burning eyes a break, it arrived at Dave's face, and wakefulness kept him more interesting for the contemplation.

Sort of. A little. The brother was animate but, as ever, the very furthest thing from animated. "What's it take to make you mad?" Gamzee said.

He heard himself sound wistful. Dumb question, dumb way to feel about it. Not that it was unusual for him to be all suck-panned, but he started scowling and couldn't stop. At least his face was a bit obscured from Karkat napping on top of him where they sprawled on the couch, while Dave was on the floor on the other side of Vriska and Terezi where they gently snored away. So long as Dave didn't sit up much, he wouldn't glimpse the fact that he'd managed to get himself writ large all over Gamzee's face, and in the slow clench of his fist. Again.

Dave groped for his glass of water. After he raised his head for a long sip through what had been proclaimed his extremely cool twirly straw, he said, "Being a creep, dude."

"Nothing motherfuckin' new."

"I have to point it out so you can course-correct. Take it up with our man Vantas next time you get a feelings attack and just can't take it on your own no more." He waved a lazy hand, like, fill the rest of the rant in yourself, I'm about to up and be asleep under ten minutes.

Aw shit, then his dreams would get to their tempting soon. Better get out of here. And better yet, Gamzee thought as he woke Karkat enough to get him onto his feet and keep him steered towards his respite block, the very best would be to find a new fixation. Like he'd lost anything in Strider's dreams? No, nothing but a spiral of bad ideas, perigee upon perigee ago. Whole seasons ago, in units of time if not in the disconnected world of the meteor.

Dave was just some fucking guy. He wasn't mean enough to try to piss Gamzee off. Could be plain nice when he got his head out of his ass and paid attention to anything outside of acting himself. It had practically been a relief on meeting him the first time, to check him up and down when he'd landed on the meteor lab's roof, and decide he was no kind of reason to lose it.

At the same time: it was him. That stupid link, the atrocious video - he'd sent it. Just some guy, who'd just hacked half of Gamzee's world out of him, and him out of that world, and that was just it. No big deal. It was so little of a deal that Gamzee could easily believe Dave wouldn't bother avoiding doing the same thing again and finding it as idly funny as he had before. And when that kind of thought crossed his mind, all manner of other fixations would slide off Gamzee's attention and leave only...

Oh, hey.

Heeeeey.

To get to Karkat's respite block, you passed Dave's. So when going back to the main corridor to get to the set of respite blocks where Gamzee slept, there was Dave's door again, and no slumbery moirail nor any other witness around.

-

"Laundry night," Gamzee said to Rose the next evening, outside the ablution block. Dave had pestered her for help, and Gamzee had simply happened, haha, to show up for a shower not too long after Dave had started his. "Gotta up and have laundry night sometime. Must be that's why there's no spare clothes in his block."

"Yes, indeed," she said. "Do you hear that, Dave? Years into our journey, you have been overcome in your sleep by the spirit of household management, and put all your old clothes in the wash. Surely you then also passed out during your shower, unconsciously raced to add your god tier outfit to the wash cycle, and sped back here still in the grip of slumber to resume your shower timeously. And then--the awakening, as the end of the shower draws closer... And finally, the discovery: Your bare-naked ass is going to stay that way."

"I got clothes you could wear," Gamzee said helpfully. "But uh, I'm guessing you're going to want to leave, sis, before I hand them over."

Rose looked at him, looked again, and said, "Pics or it didn't happen. Your palmhusk can take photos, right? Take them, share them, allow me to frame them, or all your pranking work will be for naught. Dave - Gamzee's going to help, I have to go!" she shouted in the direction of the showers, and then left, smiling broader than usual.

With that, Gamzee undressed and cracked open the door to Dave's shower cubicle. All of the cubicles in this ablution block were divided in two by a little wall that went halfway across, to keep a dry area separate from the shower. Gamzee put his Bard of Rage costume on a bench that stood in the corner nearest the door, where the only other thing was Dave's sunglasses.

The silence after Dave stepped out of the shower lasted longer than it would take to towel off. Gamzee listened, making sure his own towel was firmly secured, and then thought maybe he ought to back up and leave Dave space. The ablution block was huge, like most places on the meteor, so it wouldn't be a problem not to be a creep.

When Dave walked out of the cubicle, Gamzee waved from around the corner. "You gotta wear the hood too, though," he advised, but snapped a photo anyway. "The balance of the outfit don't up and look its best without it."

"You are being such a creep. Like, dude, oh my god. Oh my GOD? What's wrong with you!"

Oops. "Yeah but, I'm keeping my distance?" Gamzee said. "And no chance on me getting rid of the towel, for real, I'm not looking to have nobody feeling flashed should they come up from my behind side."

"You being naked won't make your dreams come true and finally make me mad, dude. All it will do is make you look weird," Dave announced. "Wait, when you talked about it last night, did you mean 'mad' as in 'madly in lust to fling myself on your hot, hot, so-warm form like an ancient Greek nymphet who's only god-given job is indulging in drunken guro'? You would mean that, I know you, that's how you get, isn't it, Gamzee."

"Naw, man, none of whatever the fuck any of that was. What I meant was, it's that simmer of getting worked up. The jaw-crack of rising fury ready to howl. And I figure that outfit could get you in-between, given as you never can quit on calling it an eyesore."

"I am NOT mad," Dave countered. "I got adjectival-and-adjacent jives galore as to what I'm feeling right now and number one would be simply really fucking strange, as none of the things are wrong with me that would need to be wrong with me in order for me to wear this outfit!"

"Really would've thought that this would do the job," said Gamzee. "And, in fact..."

"Would you get out of here so I can find something non-atrocious to wear in peace? Like, there must be other towels in here, I refuse to believe you got all of those too."

"Naw, man, it totally is working!" There was such sharpness in Dave's gestures! His mouth was motoring so hard it almost stumbled over the words! "I gotta get my fill of this sight unseen."

"Dude, if I AM mad, it's about the same level I'd get if a dumb pet brought me a decapitated bird as a present like, here you go you slow two-legged ape giant, Kentucky fry this up after you finished gagging and chasing little fluffy feathers all round the room with a vacuum cleaner as my evilly vacant eyes track your shenanigans like you are larger prey and I'm biding my time without realising what a futile--"

Gamzee started laughing. "Aw fuck, I should've known."

"WHAT, dude? Oh my god!" That new sharpness in how he moved was enough to make the codpiece bob! Dave looked upon its gentle sway and his whole face contorted, and it was a revelation striven for, achieved. It was like he had got his ass bit all unexpected.

"You get up in your word-storm," Gamzee said, laughing and marvelling. "You get mad the same as you let any other thing get a hold of you. Slam poetic on its ass. Can't even call rage a good look on you, for the part of it that is beyond the wicked verbiage. More like, it's just ... you're so intense."

"This is not a good look on anyone!" Dave yelled, and it was probably better he didn't seem to have heard that last bit Gamzee said, or that Gamzee had gone short of breath as he said it. "The entirety of my point and thesis and the lesson of every life to be lived! Now give me back my clothes!"

Well, he couldn't hang around lurking behind corners all night, and Dave wouldn't care to protect the bard outfit from Kanaya. "Trade," Gamzee said firmly, and got a piece of the Knight of Time outfit - turned out to be the cape - from his sylladex, and tossed it around the corner to begin the process. He got the Bard hood nearly thrown into his face.

-

Nothing happened. Maybe the crush got worse. That didn't count. Gamzee wasn't a naturally curious type, and was pleased with himself for getting to the point of feeling it and then also managing to answer his curiosity. Leave it at that. No point going in and flirting when nothing of the situation had actually changed.

"You did not win," said Dave, three nights later, as he stepped into the library corner of the hang-out area, where Gamzee was laid on a beanbag keeping occupied with a religious book from some session or the other's Derse.

Gamzee wanted to take a good long moment to look at him, taking in Dave's face with proper consideration - the minute tics and turns that gave his expressions splashes of depth - but hey, now he recognised that as a dumb thing to do, and mostly paid attention to his book. "Yeah, man, wasn't even a game there to up and be playing."

"No! I mean, you absolutely did not win. That did not count as getting a reaction out of me, and neither did any subsequent moments that might have looked like they counted when certain photos made the rounds."

Dave was closer now than he had been in the bathroom. A lot. Because he wasn't up and trying whatsoever to keep a good distance. Gamzee could easily note the way his skin got a little darker, maybe or even probably like a rush of blood to the head, the kind that came with bad decisions ... the satisfying ones.

"What I'm saying is," Dave continued, "it was too ridiculous to contemplate, so strike it from the record. I'm going to ... ugh, fuck, I don't know. I'm going back to where I meant to go in the first place and getting a nice normal snack. You're a dumbass, film at eleven." He turned on his heel to leave, his shoulders hunched up. Reactions all over the fucking place. It used to be Karkat and Terezi who got him like that, while with Gamzee he'd be that shrugging, simple-faced totem of accidental destruction.

If he, Gamzee thought. (And hopefully did not lie to himself in doing so. Again.) Should this motherfucker possibly have. If perhaps Dave ...

... so maybe he'd been putting on the plain act on purpose, as he full well knew that it needled Gamzee under the skin without ceasing.

"Aw, you making food?" Gamzee said to the hunch of those shoulders, hoping to throw a hitch into Strider's proud stride. "Can't be saying no to that." He rolled up off his beanbag.

"I believe in you. You're capable, bro, you can totally do that. N to the O."

"And we can slam it down with some Faygo," Gamzee said affably.

Dave's face had gone to its most classically impassive setting, like, he might as well have time-travelled from back on the first night he got to the meteor. But low in his throat, he growled.


End file.
